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For more than 100 years the Society of Professional Journalists has been dedicated to encouraging a climate in which journalism can be practiced more freely and fully, stimulating high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism and perpetuating a free press.

About the Foundation

Since its founding in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation has promoted excellence and ethics in journalism. The SDX Foundation is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that supports the educational programs of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves the professional needs of journalists and students pursuing careers in journalism.

Excellence in Journalism 2015Sept 18-20, 2015 – Orlando

Excellence in Journalism is the national journalism conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Join us in September in Orlando for training, networking, workshops and more!

SPJ Leads

SPJ News

SPJ Blogs: Newest Posts

Quill Headlines

Journalist's Toolbox

@SPJ_Tweets

Connect with SPJ

SPJ on Facebook

Upcoming Eventsand Deadlines

Become an SPJ Member

For more than 100 years the Society of Professional Journalists has been dedicated to encouraging a climate in which journalism can be practiced more freely and fully, stimulating high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism and perpetuating a free press.

About the Foundation

Since its founding in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation has promoted excellence and ethics in journalism. The SDX Foundation is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that supports the educational programs of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves the professional needs of journalists and students pursuing careers in journalism.

Excellence in Journalism 2015Sept 18-20, 2015 – Orlando

Excellence in Journalism is the national journalism conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Join us in September in Orlando for training, networking, workshops and more!

Adopt a Role Model, Not a Mentor
I remember nights when he made me cry  unintentionally, Im sure  and question my decision to enter this field. He poked, pushed and prodded me to do my best work. Always. No exceptions. No questions asked.

Its the Reporting, Stupid!
On rare occasions, editors left my copy unscathed. I could actually recognize my story when I picked up the paper the next morning. And that got me to wondering why.

Its About Your Audience, Stupid!
I got there about the same time as everyone else  and so did the newspaper's photographer. He went in one direction; I headed in the other. I asked questions, and so did he. We came to very different conclusions, and I'm ashamed to say I scoffed at his the night this story broke.

Step Off That Ladder Every Now and Then
I learned some really important lessons from Ed Williams, my first editor out in the professional working world, but what youre about to read ranks right at the top.

Speak a Second Lingo
I share all of this because I've seen firsthand how the effort to learn a language can help a journalist on the job. My editors have always been keenly aware of my Spanish skills  which I'm sure helped me land at least one job.

The Training Tithe
Life is filled with priorities. I'm not here to knock yours, but I will be the first to say that not making professional growth and development an important part of your career is a big, fat mistake.

See the Bigger Picture  and Your Place in It
I was so nervous about finding a job. I didn't do my homework and research some of the areas in which I might work. Three days before I started my first job, the county voted to begin selling beer and wine. Yikes! I almost moved into a dry county.

Evaluations and Critiques
I've had to get over myself in a big way since graduating from college. I always said I wanted my work critiqued  but I never admitted to anyone that I didn't want it criticized.

Get to Know Your Newsroom
By going to that session, I also learned more about advertising. Plenty of folks from the Trib's ad department were also in attendance. They don't need to know code either, but they do need to learn more about ad placement on a Web page  and they do need to know more about my reasons, as a journalist, for wanting to be careful about the hows and wheres those ads are posted online.

Three years of high school and two years of college Spanish, and what have I got to show for it? A year of school  and I had forgotten 95 percent of it.

Ed Williams

I'm working in a part of the country where the Hispanic population is the fastest growing population  and that is having a major effect on public policy.

If I could do it all again, I'd find some forums that would have forced me to use the language. I would have helped with a literacy program for migrant workers. A tutoring program for English-as-a-Second-Language students. I could have made a contribution and learned a lot along the way.

As it were, I let a very marketable skill atrophy.

My thoughts:

A-ha! This is one place where I have actually managed to school Ed on something. I can't believe it.

Sure, my mom's family is from Spain, and I grew up hearing the language around the house. But other than basic phrases, I couldn't speak it at all until I entered high school. It wasn't until then that I even attempted to understand the grammar.

I took three years in high school, landed in a couple of honors classes in college and worked hard to retain my skills. I taught ESL and tutored native Spanish-speakers so that I could practice. After college, I continued speaking Spanish with anyone who would let me.

Thank goodness for my husband because I gotta be honest: I'm not sure I would have been disciplined enough to keep up all that effort had he not come along. Chris lived in Spain for a year  has a real passion for the place  and has studied the language extensively. He's fluent and is one of few child and adolescent psychiatrists in the nation who can actually treat his patients in Spanish.

Because those language skills are important to my husband, theyre important to me. We have taken night courses. We have hired tutors to come to our home to converse with us. We have hired a nanny originally from Peru to work with our children with hopes that they, too, speak Spanish with ease.

I share all of this because I've seen firsthand how the effort to learn a language can help a journalist on the job. My editors have always been keenly aware of my Spanish skills  which I'm sure helped me land at least one job.

If you're wondering why you're studying a second language, please dont. Take it seriously. And when deciding which language to pursue, dont be afraid to consider your career in journalism also. Think strategically. Sure, Spanish is one handy language to know. But if you want to live in Chicago, youd be really smart to speak Polish. In Denver, theres a large concentration of Russians and Ethopians. The largest concentration of Iranians per capita in the U.S. is in Los Angeles  so Farsi would be smart to learn if you hope to move there. What about Houston, which has a relatively large Nigerian population?

Anytime you have the chance to pick up another language, please do. These are golden opportunities that could propel you to great jobs someday.